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Estimating Mastery: The Software Stack That Grows Contractor Profits · Contractor Business Builder Podcast

• 0:00
  Before you waste another dollar on software that doesn't work,
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  watch this. You don't need another
• 0:06
  overpriced tool you're never going to use.
• 0:09
  What you need is a system. I'm breaking down the exact text
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  act my top performing clients use to get bids out quicker,
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  more accurately, win more jobs, and finally step out of the
• 0:20
  day-to-day. These tools took them from burnt
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  out to booked out and now it's your turn.
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  First thing I'm going to mention quickly is just before you buy
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  any software, this is like good practice and this is what you
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  want to do is make sure you schedule a demo call with
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  whatever software it is or get the free trial, whatever it is
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  and test it out a little bit. I would suggest try two to three
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  different ones and then pick the one that you feel is going to
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  help you the best. And then when you do go to
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  purchase the software, make sure you're getting the monthly plan
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  first. The reason you want to do this
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  is because if you sign up for the annual plan, you know, you
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  might get a 20% discount or whatever it may be, but then
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  you're on the hook for a full year.
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  And if the software doesn't work but you don't like something
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  about it, you have to change and still pay for it essentially.
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  So start the monthly plan and then you can always upgrade to
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  the annual whenever you feel like.
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  Yes, this is going to work for me long term.
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  Alright, so on point #2 here. The first sort of software that
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  you're going to want to look at is some sort of takeoff
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  software. Doing takeoffs digitally, it can
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  be a little bit slower, especially starting out at
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  first. So I totally understand that.
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  But there's a massive amount of benefits to doing takeoffs
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  digitally. 1 is you can share with your team.
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  One is that you can work on it, somebody else can work on it.
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  Another one is that if you ever make a mistake, and I've done
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  this before where I remember I forgot to estimate drywall for
• 1:42
  the ceilings of this basement renovation that we were doing.
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  And I only figured out obviously afterwards when I went to, you
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  know, ask the the drywaller to give me a quote.
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  And this was after we had already gone into budgeting with
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  the client and started the project as well.
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  And I was like, you know, why is your quote so high?
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  He's like, well, well, that's my, my usual pricing.
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  It's easy to go back and check the, the take offs digitally.
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  And it's like, oh crap, you know, I forgot to take off the
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  ceiling. So it'll help you in the long
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  run. And then a whole bunch of
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  different ways. Plus eventually you're going to
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  want to delegate the estimating. If you're still doing the
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  estimating yourself, there's probably going to be someone
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  else going to be training on it. And you need this system as it
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  checks and balances that to be able to do those takeoffs and
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  digitally. Plus, if you're scaling, you're
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  growing and getting larger projects, it's just a good idea
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  always across the board. So which software should you
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  use? Which ones do I recommend?
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  The one that I'm most familiar with and one of the first ones I
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  ever used was Planswift. Excellent software.
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  I found it very intuitive. It takes a little while to learn
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  obviously, because like any new system, it does, but I found
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  this very straightforward, streamlined and it still has a
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  lot of depth. Easy to load plans, easy to take
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  offs, colour code, everything. And I really like the software.
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  The next one I'm going to mention here, the second
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  software is Bluebeam. Define Bluebeam is probably one
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  of the, would say industry standards, but it's very well
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  known and very common throughout the industry.
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  I find a lot of people are using Bluebeam.
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  I do like it. It works well.
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  It's got a lot of depth and it really scales well to very large
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  projects and teams and all this kind of stuff.
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  It is a little more techie as far as there's more of a
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  learning curve. It's not quite as intuitive as
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  something like plans with the third kind of software I'm going
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  to mention is not a specific software, right?
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  But this is your project management software.
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  And depending on the different project management software, I'm
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  gonna be telling you in a second which ones I recommend.
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  Some of them have built in or kind of integrated takeoff
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  software with the project management software.
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  And if you can find a good PM software that also does takeoffs
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  is definitely a big bonus. And to have them integrated
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  makes for a lot of sense and will help you save time when
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  setting up your TaxAct, right? The next piece of the puzzle to
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  getting, you know, good estimating system and tech stack
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  in here, I'm gonna go over the specific softwares, but you have
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  to realize there's also kind of levels of depth and systems and
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  processes set up inside the property inside the softwares.
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  Just, you know, getting it. You can have someone a hammer
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  and a skill saw, but that does not mean they're going to be
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  able to frame a house, right? So having the the systems built
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  within the software is, is very key to having a good estimating
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  system. So #3 here is your estimating
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  slash project management software.
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  So there is some set estimating standalone estimating softwares
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  out there. I'm not going to mention them
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  because I've used a few but not in depth.
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  Typically speaking, for most contractors, especially if
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  you're in the, you know, anywhere from one to maybe 10,
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  even 20 million, you're probably not going to need a stand alone
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  estimating software. Your project management software
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  is going to do it just fine, and this is what I suggest because
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  it's more integrated, it's easier and you've got everything
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  in one place. So the ones that I recommend is
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  first and foremost is job Tread excellent software.
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  They've got to take off integration as well and it is
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  quick, it's responsive, it's fairly intuitive.
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  It's got a lot of depth to it. So really solid job trend.
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  The second one is build exact. Build exact is, I find very
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  streamlined, very user friendly, tech friendly, intuitive, easy
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  setup. It's not overly burdened with
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  like tons of depth. It's it'll still do everything
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  you need it to, but without getting bogged down with, you
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  know, all the little nitty gritty stuff.
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  So build exact also great software has a take off
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  integration. So for estimating, definitely a
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  good, good pick there something to check out.
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  Third one I'm going to mention is contractor foreman.
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  Contractor foreman does not have a takeoff integration with it,
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  but it is a great software. The price point is really
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  competitive and available. So I mean, you can wait the
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  checks and balances there. If if it makes sense to get a
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  subscription with a software that has takeoffs or or just get
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  a separate takeoff with something like contractor
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  foreman. I find intuitive.
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  Their motto is sort of built by contractors or contractors.
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  You do feel that in the software, the systems are set
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  up. It's got a lot of depth.
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  It's very easy to navigate and pretty quick to to spin up.
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  They've got great training as well.
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  I found it, they've really hit the mark with the training.
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  It's very easy, no matter what screen you're on to like see a
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  training or get help and figure out the software very quickly.
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  So contract form and create great software.
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  Last I'm going to mention is Procore.
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  Procore solid, there's a bunch in the space, but if you're more
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  of a commercial contractor doing larger projects, Procore is
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  definitely something you want to check out.
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  It is very robust. It's also very kind of heavy on
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  the tech side and detail and everything else that goes along
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  with it. So depending on what you're
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  looking for, size, your business, where you're going
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  with your business, Procore could be an option as well.
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  So as mentioned, just getting the software that's only like
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  step one, you probably like 10 different steps to actually get
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  this estimating system set up. So there's assets that you're
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  going to want in your estimating system and in your project
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  management, you know, tech stack for estimating.
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  The first one is a cost database.
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  So these different project management softwares, again, a
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  lot of them do have an integration with some sort of
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  like live cost databasing, whether that is, you know, from
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  Home Depot or like a Rs means or build one or something like that
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  kind of database. So if you can get that live
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  pricing integration or just even go and use one of these
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  services, you want to have some sort of cost database that is
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  good for materials for labour. I find this is something
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  typically speaking, you're probably going to want to do
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  internally and have your own labour rates because a lot of
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  those databases are kind of a little too generic and not
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  really applicable necessarily as much for for labour rates as
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  well As for like sub trades, you know, for like, you know,
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  plumbing, electrical, like you're going to need your square
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  footage takeoffs or, or fixtures like per fixture sort of way to
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  estimate and you're gonna have different levels of it.
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  So having a good cost database in place really important and
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  then make sure you're updating it regularly.
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  So your pricing is current. The other thing to get set up
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  for your estimating system inside your tech stack is your
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  templates and assemblies. So you should have at least one
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  really big template that's like a a full build, full project,
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  whatever kind of largest type of project you may be doing.
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  And then you're probably going to have other smaller templates
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  of different kind of 1, not one off like you're going to
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  something you do consistently, but smaller scopes of work for
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  templates. And then within that you're
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  going to want to have some templates for assembly.
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  So this could be like exterior wall or floor assembly or roof,
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  roof assembly or whatever you have in order to be able to
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  estimate quicker and, and do those calculations, you know,
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  really fast without having to put in a whole bunch of details
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  every time. The other last one I'm going to
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  mention, as far as you're estimating assets, there are
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  some other smaller ones, but these are the big ones that you
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  need to focus on. And the last one I'm going to
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  mention is RFQ templates or requests for quote.
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  Some people may call request for bid, whatever you know,
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  tendering out. So you want, there should be
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  like documentation inside your business of what's expected of
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  the contractor or the subcontractor as far as you
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  know, cleanliness. Do they need workers comp?
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  Do they need, you know, licenses, whatever, like all
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  those kind of stipulations, what's what's acceptable quality
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  of work. If you have certain qualities
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  that must be met, outline that in your RFQ.
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  So everyone is bidding and knows what's expected of them so that
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  the pricing is accurate across different, you know, different
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  bids and everything lines up. Give them the line items that
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  they're bidding on as much detail as you can from the
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  estimate to them. And this should be templated so
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  you can pretty much just take the scope of work, plug and
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  play, and they get all this information and everything they
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  need. RFQ templates gonna save you a
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  ton of time. Alright, moving on to #5 this is
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  file management and storage. And if you want estimating
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  templates, we've got links in the description below.
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  Go get our estimating template stack.
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  Really great resource. Go pick it up for yourself right
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  now. So file management, storage,
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  this is typically, I like Google Drive.
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  You could use other ones. There's, there's other ones out
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  there like Google Drive, I think is the most widely used, works
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  really well. And even if you're already using
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  some sort of cloud storage, you want to make sure that it's
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  organized in a fashion that makes sense.
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  And there's also automations you can build around this.
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  So whenever you get a new client or a new estimate, new lead that
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  goes into estimating, you can have like a standard folder
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  structure and that's just set up already and it'll just spin it
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  off through the automation. Zapier is Zapier.
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  Zapier, whatever you want to call it is a good one for that.
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  And, and what I'm familiar with. There's other ones, of course,
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  the way you want to organize this is you would have the the
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  folder for every client, so clients name, client address.
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  So it's easy to search for within that folder.
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  You're probably going to have about anywhere from 4:00 to 6:00
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  subfolders, one probably for photos, one for maybe estimating
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  for your plans, maybe anything to do with financials.
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  And so a couple of subfolders. And you want to have that
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  structure the same for every client for every estimate.
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  So it's very easy for everybody to find the information and
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  it's, you know, consistent across the board.
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  This file management is also great for sharing share files
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  with the designer, project manager, you know, the client,
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  whoever it may be. It's very easy to then share.
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  Like I mentioned, you wanna have your plans and your any pictures
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  from the site files, whatever is lives in that folder.
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  So it's very easy for everyone to get to it.
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  Now some people may prefer to have these files inside your
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  project management software. I found this.
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  You can have those in there, but it's not it's not as effective
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  as having a separate file management cloud system.
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  First of all, for the sharing, Second of all, for live editing,
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  as well as always having the most current plans and
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  documents. You'll find that if you need to
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  always upload new stuff to the project management software,
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  it's typically a lot easier just to have like the base one on the
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  Google Drive. People find it there and then
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  you use the software. If you need to upload it to your
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  takeoff software, of course, you know that's something you just
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  have to do, and you can do that from the file management system.
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  All right, moving on to #6 here, we're going to be talking about
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  Excel spreadsheets or spreadsheets in general.
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  And this may seem old school to some.
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  For some, it may be this is the rock solid way you use, you
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  know, spreadsheets for, for estimating.
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  You'd be doing it for 30 years. It works great.
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  So there are certain use cases that definitely this will be
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  part of your system. And there's others where maybe
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  you want to try to change it up and get something, you know, a
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  little bit more current. Just stay tuned for the next
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  step. And I'm going to be talking
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  about how you can actually, you know, stop estimating and get
• 13:09
  someone else to do it. And, and how that system kind of
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  comes into play, but for spreadsheets, the way that you
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  want to use this is database backups.
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  So things like your templates, you cause database, any sort of
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  really critical information. I like to have a regular cadence
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  of backups every three months or maybe every time you update it,
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  whatever it may be. But keep a spreadsheet active
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  backup because that way if you ever need to switch softwares or
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  the software goes down or someone changes something,
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  you've always can go back and get like the the raw data from
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  the the spreadsheet. The other one is transfers.
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  So if you're transferring like I mentioned from one program to
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  the next or something like that, typically you can do this
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  through automation today, but not always.
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  You can integrate every software together.
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  So to export from one important to the other is really good.
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  As far as using estimates for as as far as using spreadsheets for
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  estimating, I know it is quicker.
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  As I mentioned, typically spreadsheets are really quick.
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  They're very customizable, so that is a really good way.
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  If you're looking for something a little bit more robust than
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  your standard spreadsheet, you can look at Smartsheets.
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  It functions like a spreadsheet, but is a lot more like a
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  management type software and can really be built out and
• 14:29
  customized really well. The reason I don't suggest this
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  for most builders or contractors because it does take a lot of
• 14:35
  setup and like it's very customizable, but you're going
• 14:40
  to spend a lot of time making everything and setting
• 14:42
  everything up. I'm not, I'm not against using
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  spreadsheets, especially if you're doing like ballpark
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  estimates or you need something on the fly when you're at a
• 14:51
  clients place or you're just doing something quick or you
• 14:55
  want to get some numbers, you can use it.
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  The big issue comes in like you've got to move that data now
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  into the other systems. And that's that's where the
• 15:04
  friction can come in. And even if you're saving
• 15:06
  yourself, let's say even up to an hour on an estimate,
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  typically using spreadsheets over some project management
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  software, you're going to end up losing hour and your team is
• 15:15
  gonna end up like losing communication from you trying
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  to, you know, move that information into your other
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  systems and softwares. Right on to #7 here, this is the
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  final piece of the big like text stack system for estimating.
• 15:31
  And that is getting your standard operating procedures in
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  place. So you're going to use something
• 15:36
  like a Google Doc or Word doc and build out an SOP for the
• 15:40
  estimating for the templates. How do you update the templates?
• 15:44
  How do you use the different softwares, all this type of
• 15:46
  stuff? You need to have that in an SOP
• 15:48
  because first and foremost, it's going to help you to realize
• 15:52
  what is your process. You've probably been doing
• 15:54
  something for years, maybe even decades, and you've got a
• 15:58
  process, but you've never really thought it through.
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  And you may realize once you start building out an SOP that,
• 16:04
  hey, maybe we should do this in a different way.
• 16:06
  Or I wonder if there's a better way to do this.
• 16:08
  I've been doing this for years, but it doesn't really actually
• 16:11
  seem that optimized. So it helps you get that out of
• 16:15
  your head, helps you define it, and now you can delegate that
• 16:18
  and train someone else on it beyond the SOP.
• 16:21
  Once you've got that built out, then you want to create a
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  workflow. So this is like one of those
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  diagrams with the steps essentially, and it's very easy
• 16:30
  to visualize and it's sort of the big steps of the system.
• 16:33
  And then the final thing is a training video.
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  So this is something where you'll just do a screen share,
• 16:38
  zoom, loom, whatever you want to do, do a screen share on your
• 16:42
  computer and just go through an estimate and say, this is how I
• 16:45
  load a template. This is how I load their plans.
• 16:47
  This is how I do takeoffs. This is, you know, you're kind
• 16:50
  of working on an estimate. So you're getting work done, but
• 16:54
  you're just explaining what you're doing.
• 16:55
  You're kind of following the SOP and the workflow and that you
• 17:00
  can pretty much create a training video and it's not
• 17:04
  going to take you much extra time because it's work you're
• 17:06
  already doing estimate a project for someone.
• 17:09
  Once you have those components, boom, you're off to the races
• 17:12
  here. You can then pass this to
• 17:14
  somebody else and delegate a lot of your estimating and start to
• 17:18
  train someone using that system. So now that you know how to set
• 17:21
  up your tech stack and get that system placed, you're going to
• 17:24
  want to watch the next video in this Estimating Mastery series.
• 17:28
  We've got a bunch of videos here on every little part of estimate
• 17:31
  to really get high level. So if you want high level
• 17:33
  templates of how to build out great templates for quick and
• 17:37
  accurate estimating, go check out the next video in the
• 17:39
  series.